


Little Ghost, Little Ghost, One I'm Scared of the Most

by hobbit_hedgehog



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Fluff and Humor, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 02:05:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12854412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hobbit_hedgehog/pseuds/hobbit_hedgehog
Summary: Bokuto wasn't sure what it was about his new apartment, but something was definitely off.  He wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere, or the location of the building, or something else entirely.    Bokuto had the overwhelming feeling that he wasn't alone in his apartment.For kingjulianisnotalemur on tumblr as a part of the Haikyuu Fantasy/Myth Exchange 2017.





	Little Ghost, Little Ghost, One I'm Scared of the Most

**Author's Note:**

> Hey team! This is my entry for the Haikyuu Fantasy/Myth Exchange 2017 for kingjulianisnotalemur on tumblr. My theme was ghosts. The fic title and beginning and end quotes are from the White Stripes song "Little Ghost". Enjoy!
> 
> _Little ghost, little ghost_   
>  _One I'm scared of the most_   
>  _Can you scare me up a little bit of love?_   
>  _I'm the only one that sees you,_   
>  _And I can't do much to please you_   
>  _And it's not yet time to meet the lord above_

Bokuto wasn't sure what it was about his new apartment, but something was definitely off.  He wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere, or the location of the building, or something else entirely.  His friends—mostly Kuroo—told him to ignore it.  It was all in his head, he was imagining it, he was still adjusting to living in a new place.  He had only been living there for a few weeks at the most, after all.  Bokuto would let them say their piece, then move onto a new topic of conversation, but he knew he was right.  Bokuto had the overwhelming feeling that he wasn't alone in his apartment.  Or that someone was watching him, at the very least.

It started off small, going almost completely unnoticed by Bokuto.  Rooms being colder than Bokuto remembered them being, whispers and groans that could just as easily been the pipes creaking.  Things that had no impact on Bokuto's day to day. Then things got a little weirder.  Objects would be moved from where they had been left, or just disappearing completely before reappearing days later.  There would be footsteps in the hall outside his apartment, someone pacing back and forth, but when Bokuto would open the door, there'd be no one out there.  Lights would flicker, even after Bokuto replaced the bulbs.  Something wasn't right, and it was starting to freak Bokuto out.

It all came to a head one night as Bokuto was preparing for bed.  He had just turned off the lights and tucked himself into bed when he heard the footsteps.  This time, however, the footsteps were louder than they had been.  Bokuto sat up, straining to hear the pacing.  The sound would recede, then grow louder, recede, then grow louder.  With a jolt, Bokuto rocketed out of bed; the footsteps were coming from _inside_ his apartment.  He grabbed a flashlight from his nightstand.  With a deep breath, Bokuto flung open his bedroom door and scanned the hallway.  It was empty.

"Is someone there?" he called, flashlight held out in front of him.  He took a hesitant step forward when there was no response.  "Hello?  I promise I won't hurt you.  Even though I could.  You did break into my apartment."

"Your apartment?" a voice whispered into his ear.  "Sorry, but I was living here first."

Bokuto screamed in alarm.  He whipped around, frantically waving his flashlight as he looked for the source of the voice.  To his dismay, the hall was empty.  He gripped the flashlight tighter, but nearly dropped it when he felt something cold brush against his shoulder.  He screamed again.

"Please stop screaming, you're going to upset the neighbors," the voice whispered.

Bokuto wanted to keep screaming, he really did, but by some miracle, he stopped.

"Much better," the voice said.  "Now, either go to bed, or get out of my apartment."

With that, the cold feeling vanished.  Bokuto wasn't sure, but he thought that he was alone.

"What the fuck was that?" he whispered to the darkness.  He was thankful that the darkness didn't respond that time.

***

"Okay, so I narrowed it down.  Whatever's in my apartment is either a vampire, or a ghost," Bokuto told Kuroo the following day.  The two were sitting outside a café close to campus.  Bokuto looked like hell, having gotten no sleep the night before.  Kuroo was deeply engrossed in something on his phone and had failed to comment on his friend's appearance.

"Can't be a vampire," Kuroo said without looking up from his phone.

Bokuto cocked his head to the side.  "Why not?"

"Vampires have tangible bodies, so you would have seen it by now.  So it has to be a gho-"

Kuroo trailed off, looking up from his phone as confusion, then realization dawned on his face.  He whipped his head around to glare at Bokuto.  "You moldy soybean, I can't believe you're trying to drag me into a conversation about paranormal bullshit."

Bokuto smacked his hands on the table in frustration," Dude, I'm telling you the truth!  I've _been_ telling you the truth!  There's a ghost in my apartment!  I heard it!"  Bokuto paused, then added, "Wait, did you just call me a moldy soybean?"

"You heard it?" Kuroo asked, ignoring Bokuto's follow up question.  "As in, it spoke to you?"

"Yes!" Bokuto cried.  "I told it I wasn't going to hurt it, even though it was in my apartment and it said that it lived there first." 

Kuroo stared at Bokuto.  Bokuto stared back.

"You don't believe me," Bokuto said after a moment.

Kuroo shook his head.  "Not at all."

Kuroo turned back to his phone as Bokuto smacked his head against the table.  Without looking up, Kuroo reached over and patted Bokuto's head.  Bokuto gave a half-assed attempt to pat Kuroo's hand away.

"I'm telling you, Bo," Kuroo said as he pulled his hand back, "you're just imagining it.  There's nothing in your apartment.  And even if there was something there, what are you going to do?  Sit in a salt circle and wait for it to talk to you?"

***

That night, Bokuto found himself sitting in the middle of a salt circle, flashlight tight in hand once more.  Well, it was almost a circle.  He had dumped a large amount of table salt in the middle of his hallway before arranging it into something that wasn't quite a circle or an oval.  Bokuto had then made a halfhearted attempt to nudge the salt into more of a circle shape, but gave up when he realized it was a waste of time.  So he had grabbed his flashlight, and was currently waiting in a near pitch-black apartment.  And he was getting antsy.

"Is anyone here?" Bokuto called out.  "I just wanna talk."

He was met with silence.

"Are you a vampire or a ghost?" he asked.

More silence.

"If you can hear me, clap once?" he tried.

"I'm not a kid," a voice snapped in his ear.

Bokuto did his best to not jump out of his skin.  He settled on spinning around fast enough to disrupt the salt circle.

"Who's there?" he called.

"The current tenant of this- oh, gods, I can't do this," the voice groaned.  "It's hard to talk like this, not sure why, but it is.  Can we try something else, Intruder-san?"

"Intruder-san?" Bokuto repeated.  "My name's Bokuto Koutarou."

Bokuto could hear the exasperation as the voice said, "Bathroom."

"Bathroom?" Bokuto asked.  "What's in the bathroom?"

The voice didn't reply.  Bokuto shifted, his already frayed nerves worsening under the strain of the silence.  Then the sound of rushing water reached his ears; the shower was running.  Bokuto got to his feet.  He approached the bathroom with caution, wondering if something was going to jump out and attack him.  He peeked around the corner, then sighed in relief.  The bathroom was empty.

"Come on, Intruder-san," the voice snapped.

Bokuto felt something tug on the front of his shirt.  Without warning, he was tugged into the bathroom by whatever had a grip on his shirt.  The door slammed shut behind Bokuto, leaving him trapped in his own bathroom as steam filled the enclosed space.

"This is going to run up my gas bill, I hope you know," Bokuto grumbled to the disembodied voice.

After a few more minutes, the shower turned off.  Bokuto waited for something to happen, the steady drip of water falling from the shower head fraying his already shot nerves.

After a minute, a name appeared in the fog on the mirror: Akaashi Keiji.

"Akaashi Keiji?" Bokuto read.  "That's your name?"

The word "yes" appeared on the mirror.

"So, you used to live here?" Bokuto asked.

New writing formed: Still live here.  The phrase was underlined.  A few times.

"Well, hate to break it to you, Akaashi, but they wouldn't have rented this place to me if you were still living here," Bokuto pointed out.  "And since I can't see you, you're probably a ghost."

Akaashi didn't respond.  Bokuto shifted uncomfortably as minutes passed by in total silence.

"Akaashi, you still here?"

The word "here" appeared on the mirror, followed by "Dead?"

Bokuto pulled out his phone, and typed Akaashi's name into the search bar.  The few seconds wait for the results was agonizing.  The first link was for an obituary.  He clicked on it, then skimmed the obituary.  A hit-and-run case three months previous had resulted in the death of a lone pedestrian.  He had died on the way to the hospital.  He had been about Bokuto's age.  Bokuto scrolled back up to the top of the obituary.  A young man with curly dark hair and a stoic expression stared back at him.  Bokuto had to admit, it was a shame that he had died, he was attractive.

"I guess you've been dead for a few months," Bokuto said.  He cringed at his own bluntness.  "Sorry about that," he added.

Akaashi didn't reply.

"Did you not know you were dead?" Bokuto asked.

The words "I didn't" appeared on the mirror.

"I really am sorry," Bokuto said.  "It must have been a rough three months."

Akaashi was quiet for a minute.  Bokuto waited as patiently as he could as Akaashi scrawled on the mirror, "I didn't even realize it had been that long.  I thought things were okay.  Some of my stuff was missing, but all of my furniture was still here.  But then you moved in, and you refused to acknowledge my existence, and that annoyed me to no end.  I guess it makes sense if you couldn't see or hear me."

Bokuto rubbed the back of his neck.  "Yeah, that's fair.  Explains why you kept moving my stuff around too."

"What do I do now?" Akaashi asked, speaking directly to Bokuto that time.

Bokuto drummed his fingers on the countertop.  "Well, I've always wanted a roommate," he commented.

***

The two quickly fell into a routine.  Bokuto's apartment was decidedly less terrifying now that he had a face and a name to associate with the disembodied voice.  Bokuto had to admit, he really liked having Akaashi around.  Akaashi was fun to talk to.  He was content to let Bokuto do most of the talking a lot of the time, but he was also blunt and unafraid to call Bokuto out on his shit when needed.  He'd also remind Bokuto of day to day things he'd otherwise forget to do, which Bokuto greatly appreciated.  He was especially grateful that he would no longer be locked out of his apartment, as Akaashi would remind him to grab his keys before he'd leave. 

In return, Bokuto would help Akaashi grow more accustomed to ghosthood.  He had even Googled "how to help a ghost adjust to life as a ghost" (he had been met with limited success on that one, but it was the thought that counted, in Bokuto's mind).  Bokuto rearranged the furniture to the way Akaashi had had it when he was alive, he asked questions about Akaashi's life before the accident.  Akaashi wouldn't always answer Bokuto's questions—the memories would be too painful, or he wouldn't feel like talking—but Bokuto didn't mind.  He liked what they had.  And he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

***

"So did you ever figure out your haunting problem?" Kuroo asked over lunch a few months later.

Bokuto gave him a wistful smile, "Yeah, we worked it out."

Kuroo raised an eyebrow.  "We?  Who's we?"

"Me and Keiji," Bokuto replied.

Kuroo shook his head.  He didn't get it, but if Bokuto was happy, he didn't really need to get it.

***

It had been almost a year by the time Akaashi finally said he loved Bokuto.  Bokuto had been getting ready for work when Akaashi had turned on the shower and shut the door.  Bokuto had protested, stating that the steam would ruin his hair, but he had only gotten a dismissive snort in return.  Once the bathroom had filled with steam, Akaashi had shut off the shower.  Bokuto watched in amazement as a shape appeared on the mirror; it was a single heart.  He grinned, then reached forward to draw a heart of his own.  He ran his finger through the fog, connecting the two hearts.

"Love you too, Keiji."

 

**Author's Note:**

> _Though I try my best to keep it_   
>  _There really was no secret_   
>  _Must have looked like I was dancing with the wall_   
>  _No one else could see this apparition_   
>  _But because of my condition_   
>  _I fell in love with a little ghost and that was all_


End file.
